No more boing! #PCB_Motor

That's more like it! The R45 PCB Motor and the R45 PCB Motor Driver are working together to achieve the stiffness and accuracy I was after. #PCB_Motor

Everything fits and, so far, the first tests with the R45 PCB Motor Driver look very promising! #PCB_Motor

What else can you ask for than fresh PCBs and some extra goodies in the same box? Thanks @pcbwayofficial.bsky.social!

Just received another package from @pcbwayofficial.bsky.social! These PCBs are for the R45 PCB Motor Driver, a custom BLDC driver for the R45 PCB Motor. Huge thanks to www.pcbway.com for supporting this project! #PCB_Motor

Nothing like a blender render to better cope with the wait for the PCBs for the R45 PCB Motor Driver to arrive... #PCB_Motor

Nothing like a vacation day to make some progress! This is the PCB Motor Driver for the R45 PCBM. #PCB_Motor

Started working on a driver for the R45 PCB Motor! #PCB_Motor

Boing! #PCB_Motor

After some oscilloscope and kitchen scale tests, I can confirm that the Kv of the four R45 motor stack is now 1/4 of the original and torque (Kt) is 4 times the original. #PCB_Motor

As expected, the thermal performance of the stacked assembly of R45 PCB Motors is degraded, but not by a lot. The image shows the results of 2.5A flowing through the Motor. I wonder if adding thermal pads between PCBs would improve heat spreading and help avoid hotspots. #PCB_Motor

Started tests stacking various R45 PCB Motor boards. These are 4 boards stacked in a series configuration. Will I get close to 4x the torque for the same current? How will the stacked assembly perform thermally? #PCB_Motor

Field Oriented Control is working on the R45 PCB Motor! #PCB_Motor

Quick phasing plus linearity check of the R45 PCB Motor. The linearity is quite good considering all mechanical parts are 3d printed.

Beautiful sinusoidal back-emf coming from the R45 PCB Motor! #PCB_Motor

A single PCB of the R45 PCB Motor can safely handle a continuous current of up to 3 A. #PCB_Motor

First spins of the R45 PCB Motor! Right now it's running in open loop mode (without an encoder). #PCB_Motor

All the magnets have been glued. Inspecting the fields with a magnetic viewing film reveals that the Halbach configuration behaves as predicted by the simulations. #PCB_Motor

Placing the magnets in a Hallbach configuration is trickier than I initially expected, the magnets do not want to stay in place. Time for CA glue! #PCB_Motor

Today I received the magnets for the R45 PCB Motor. The magnets have been marked and now it's time to place them one by one in a Hallbach configuration. #PCB_Motor

In order to achieve high torques in a PCB Motor the amount of copper plays a major role. The following spreadsheet has been used in order to evaluate what some of the best available options are. PCBWay's 10L 6oz stackup looks very promising but it's expensive for low quantities... #PCB_Motor

The R45 PCB Motor uses a Halbach magnet configuration, which gives it two key advantages: 1. It concentrates the magnetic fields to one side, like having a back iron. 2. It produces a more uniform field even with rectangular magnets instead of arcs (cheaper). #PCB_Motor

New package from @pcbwayofficial.bsky.social ! These PCBs are for the R45 PCBM, an evolution of the Comb PCB motor with higher torque capabilities. The PCBs are 0.6mm & 4 layers. One of the things I want to test is to stack them. Thank you www.pcbway.com for sponsoring this project! #PCB_Motor

Performed some thermal testing on the Comb PCB Motor. As a result, its rated current has been found to be 1.6 A. #PCB_Motor

Designed and printed this cute case for the IoT HDMI mux! #IoT #ESP32

With the addition of a second bearing the Comb PCB motor is certainly not as sleek, but the mechanical play has been reduced by a lot. #PCB_Motor

New addition to the lab! This 3d printer will allow much quicker iterations on the mechanical side of my current projects.

Started designing the next iteration of the Comb PCB Motor. This time I'm going for torque instead of cuteness. Bigger, more copper, more poles, more power. #PCB_Motor

The IoT HDMI mux is alive. Here's the progress so far: - USB, ESP32, WiFi & BT antenna all working - HDMI mux is muxing - Identified a missing +5V connection to the HDMI sink (this has been bodged) - Confirmed reliable 1080p60 output after the fix #IoT #ESP32

Trying out position control on the Comb PCB Motor! A more agressive loop could be achieved with more pole pairs or the addition of an encoder. #PCB_Motor

It's a happy day when I receive a package from @pcbwayofficial.bsky.social! This PCB is for an IoT enabled HDMI mux PCB, the testing begins... This project is proudly sponsored by www.pcbway.com

Closed-loop speed control on the Comb PCB Motor! Using feedback from the hall sensors, the motor tracks the target speed. Not perfectly tuned yet, but already doing a pretty good job. #PCB_Motor

More characterization tests for the Comb PCB Motor! This time I measured the Kv by spinning the motor and measuring the back-emf. These are the results: - KV_measured = 6450 RPM/V - Kt_estimated = 1.48 mNm/A - Kt_simulation = 1.55 mNm/A #PCB_Motor

Continuing with the Comb PCB Motor characterization, I ran some tests to estimate the phase inductance. The result: 2 µH per phase. #PCB_Motor

After the rework the Comb PCB motor is spinning beautifully! Next step closing some loops. #PCB_Motor

That’ll do it! The Comb PCB Motor has been successfully reworked to swap the two misplaced hall sensors. #PCB_Motor

Hall placement issue confirmed in the Comb PCB Motor. This is the simulation of the torque produced by the motor, no wonder it vibrates and has trouble starting! On the bright side, this is the perfect opportunity to show off my bodge skills! #PCB_Motor

A resistance check of the Comb PCB Motor reveals a phase resistance value of 651 mΩ, a bit lower than the 770 mΩ found in the PDN simulation. #PCB_Motor

The Comb PCB Motor is spinning! It vibrates more than expected and struggles to start from zero speed, I suspect a hall placement issue (TBC). Debugging time! #PCB_Motor

It was not a good idea to place ferrous screws in the middle of the Comb PCB Motor. The screws are creating very strong "cogging torque". I will have to switch to stainless screws, for now a bit of CA glue will do the trick! #PCB_Motor

So far everything fits, there is a bit too much axial play in the bearing but I think it's good enough to test things. #Electronics #PCB_Motor #Robotics

Received a package from @pcbwayofficial.bsky.social today! These are the PCB and 3D prints for the Comb PCB Motor. #Electronics #PCB_Motor #Robotics

Feeling like this today...

Ordered some more of my tiny STM32 USB Sticks. This time I felt brave enough to go for the FCM32F042F6P6 clone. So far it's fully compatible with the code that I had written for the original part, the only thing that is a bummer is that it does not come with a USB bootloader. #USB #FCM32

Just received the magnets for the Comb PCB Motor! For their size these are VERY strong magnets. #Electronics #PCB_Motor #Robotics

Finally came around to playing with the Comb PCB Motor CAD. Is this going to work or is it going to be nightmare fuel? #Electronics #PCB_Motor #Robotics

This PCB can convert any 3FX-136 based wine fridge into a very precise cheese cave! I think we can all agree that the replacement is way cooler (no pun intended). #Electronics #Cheese

This is a simple, cheap and very accurate circuit that you can integrate into your designs to achieve better than 0.1 ºC accuracy (using a PT100 sensor). The circuit is part of a wine fridge to cheese cave conversion PCB which I developed some time ago. #Electronics #PT100

Rate my PCB business card with reference features and a few small design touches.

I really enjoy searching for PCB faults with the thermal camera. Always feels like a superpower.